By Roland Schatz

hen you think of self-storage, the next words that come to mind are not usually car wash. Typically, when self-storage developers think of incorporating complementary businesses into their storage facilities (usually to meet local zoning requirements), they tend to look at office space, shipping/Amazon outlets, or sometimes even small retail CRUs.

As strange as it might sound, however, there is a lot to be said about pairing storage with a car wash. Both businesses are driven by very similar metrics. A car wash, like self-storage, works best in high-traffic, high-visibility locations. Even in the age of the internet, a high percentage of storage customers still come from drive-by traffic, thus making visibility and signage very important for a successful storage site. Car wash has always been somewhat of an impulse purchase. Customers are driving by your wash site, see the sign, and come in to clean their car. Thus, when sourcing sites for a car wash, developers seek the same high-traffic, high-visibility locations as storage in order to provide opportunities for as many customers as possible.

Similarly, modern storage benefits from being located in close proximity to rooftops, thus making access more convenient for the residential consumers who make up the majority of self-storage users. Many car wash users also seem to prefer having their facility of choice close to home. This avoids having the decision to wash a vehicle caught up in the stress of the daily work commute and reduces commute time in cities increasingly struggling with gridlock.

For anyone within the storage industry, it is obvious that changes are taking place. Storage has come a long way from corrugated steel drive-up buildings surrounded by barbed wire and located in industrial parks. Today’s facilities look and feel more like office buildings or retail, with well-appointed lobbies, security cameras, and good lighting. Customers are able to rent online and sometimes even access their units via smartphone.

Like self-storage, the car wash sector has also been undergoing changes in approach and technology. People of a certain age remember going to a self-serve car wash with their dad and spending 20 to 30 minutes on a Saturday washing the car from front to back. More modern consumers have grown up with the petro-wash concept: 30-foot bays located beside a gas station with touchless automatic washes where you drove your car into the bay and, seven to 10 minutes later, drove out once the wash cycle was completed. While convenient, these washes are slow, and customers often found themselves lined up for 30 minutes or more just waiting to get into one of the bays.

Today’s car washes are increasingly focusing on the express exterior or tunnel wash concept. These washes focus on longer tunnels (often 130 feet or longer), where the car is conveyed through the tunnel while being actively washed by various wraps and brushes along the way. In the past, these so-called “friction washes” earned a bad reputation for scratching cars, but the modern equivalents have moved beyond this problem. Utilizing closed cell foam technology, the modern express tunnel is able to provide a first-rate wash with no real risk of damage to the cars, so long as the equipment is maintained. The advantage to this approach is a better wash in a fraction of the time. A modern, 140-foot express wash tunnel is able to process over 100 cars per hour, delivering a quality wash to each one while using one-third the water of a traditional rollover car wash.

Mahogany (www.mahoganyliving.com) is located in Calgary, Alberta, in the southeast quadrant of the city. Mahogany is one of six or seven new communities southeast of Calgary that are now home to roughly 200,000 residents. This innovative community is centered around a purpose-build, 63-acre freshwater lake. The community provides everything from schools, outdoor retail, and parks to a private beach club for its residents. It is a true mixed-use community with a blend of retail, single-family, and multifamily, including high-rise residential.

Bluebird was approached in 2020 by the developer to see if a self-storage facility would fit within the community. There were several sensitivities to take into consideration at the time. Mahogany was a higher-end, affluent community with very active and engaged residents. The proposed site in question was located not just near the community but literally right in the center of it. To top it off, the district was designated as a TOD, or transit-oriented development, meaning the city planners (who had to approve the use of storage) were going to be focusing on things like retail presence and street-level activation.

Bluebird’s partner, StoreWest, happened to be active in car wash development via their Great White Car Wash brand. Both groups quickly saw the value of integrating a car wash offering into the storage development. Mahogany has a no drive-thru policy throughout the community. However, the storage facility was large enough to not only integrate a 150-foot express wash tunnel into the ground floor of the building but also the stacking and POS systems, thus removing any external drive-thru or lineups. Adding the car wash along with a retail office for Great White Wash helped satisfy the city requirements for mixed-use and street-level activation. Combining the offerings appeased the residents who were eager for a local wash and excited by the new technology. The proposed development was eventually approved 14-0 by Calgary City Council.

While this approach is both innovative and complementary, it is not without considerations for both the storage and wash. The construction process is likely to be more complex, as provisions must be made for the height of the wash and the fact that it is a car wash, which means water, and lots of it. Additionally, the storage facility does lose rentable space on the ground floor to the wash. That being said, there can be no doubt that the combined offering provides a compelling draw for the local community.

The Bluebird/StoreWest group now has two of these integrated storage/wash facilities within its portfolio (Mahogany and Buffalo Run). Although these two facilities are less than one year old, results for both have been exceptional, suggesting that perhaps storage and car wash are a match made in heaven!